Eventually, even TV characters have to leave high school. Not that you'd necessarily notice with the Upper East Side habitues of Gossip Girl, who already lead more sophisticated lives than most 35-year-olds. As season three begins, we find our characters regrouping in New York after a fabulous, Vanity Fair-editorial-style vacation: Blair and Chuck now in a relationship, Serena with something to hide, and Dan and his grunge dad fresh from the Hamptons. Fans of the seldom-seen high-society/ indie-rock crossover should hang on for later in the series when there's a guest appearance by Sonic Youth. Like, so not kidding.

The Pride of Britain Awards 2009

8pm, ITV1

It would be easy to write off this annual ceremony, now in its 11th year, as mawkish, sentimental, tabloid populism. However, while the soul cannot but help wither at the oleaginous celebrities wheeled out here – Simon Cowell, Ant and Dec, David Beckham – there is no gainsaying the accomplishments of some of the "ordinary" people they are deigning to bless. Among those deservedly acknowledged are several veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan and a 12-year-old campaigner for leukaemia charities.

True Blood

10pm, Channel 4

Terrestrial TV finally gets to see the brand-new show from Six Feet Under creator Alan Ball, who's sticking with the dark side – only this time it's all about the living dead. The clever premise is that vampires now live openly among people, fighting for their civil rights and surviving, supposedly, on bottles of synthetic Tru Blood. But this is more than just an excuse for canny satire, though spotting these quirks is a pleasure in its own right. It's a stylish, slick and moreish feast of soapy drama, with an excellent lead in Anna Paquin as the telepathic waitress, Sookie Stackhouse.

Generation Kill

11.20pm, Channel 4

Given the adulation conferred on The Wire, what creators David Simon and Ed Burns did next was always going to be subject to scrutiny. This mini-series, about a Marine battalion in the first weeks of the Iraq invasion, has echoes of the Baltimore show – it expects viewers to figure out characters and military slang – and some of the themes of race and authority are familiar. It's disorientating at first, but as you sink into its world, it fits together to create another remarkable drama.